Ban this filth! Joe Muggs defends dubstep's dirty side

[SCope13]

http://www.factmag.com/2013/02/04/ban-t ... ty-side/2/

Listening all the put-downs you hear of rowdy dubstep, you’d think it was a complete betrayal of dance culture, a systematic removal of the groove and “whitening” of the sound beyond all recognition. This is, however, usually said by people who don’t dance. Dubstep when it originally came along wasn’t just a new sound, it was a systematic re-wiring of the relationship of electronic music to the body: its movements swinging, swaying, full-limbed, big. The half-tempo undertow and the emphasis on notes that throb and undulate as much as on percussive hits have their own very particular sensualism. And the push-pull dynamic that you can hear in the most minimal eyes-down tunes is still there in the rave-beast tracks.

Yes, OK, a moshpit full of teenage boys can be irritating in a club, as can a front row full of guys with their shirts off pumping their fists relentlessly. But look past that: plenty of times I’ve witnessed girls winding their waists and people throwing proper shapes to the same music on the same dancefloor as the rowdy contingent. Look at the brilliant (seriously) Got To Dance on Sky: with each series, you get more and more fifteen and sixteen-year-olds demonstrating insane moves to full-tilt brostep, beautifully fluid fusions of popping, jerking and robotics, with every joint and muscle in their body locked in to the bass undulations as much as to the drum patterns. This is our grass-roots dance music and we should be proud of that.

Thoughts?

[garethom]

Starts off well, ends up sounding like he's just being contrary to wind up the easily wind-uppable.

I mean, did anybody REALLY like the Skrillex & Korn album? Not even Skrillex & Korn fans seemed to like it haha.

[scspkr99]

I wasn't there at the beginning but I was around before and it wasn't a systematic rewiring of anything.

I don't hate bro and it takes all sorts but let's not credit dubstep with stuff it wasn't

[SCope13]

the comments are jokes too

[dickman69]

The half-tempo undertow and the emphasis on notes that throb and undulate as much as on percussive hits have their own very particular sensualism. And the push-pull dynamic that you can hear in the most minimal eyes-down tunes is still there in the rave-beast tracks.

but this is just not true

[SCope13]

the last page of that article was just awful.

[Figment]

made me cringe tbh, big ups for doing what he wants to do, saying what he wants to say, but fuck me just leave it alone, to be completely honest it appears to have completely died down now, i barely even hear about bro anymore.

[exfox]

made me cringe tbh, big ups for doing what he wants to do, saying what he wants to say, but fuck me just leave it alone, to be completely honest it appears to have completely died down now, i barely even hear about bro anymore.

this.

[kidshuffle]

brostep is still huge bros, dont worry.


im with this guy though...i mean its legitimately gotten kids into dance music again, and that can't be anything bad. and tbh i'd rather see a bunch of bros and hoes moshin and havin a good time than a bunch of hipsters chinstroking and bringing the vibe down.

[aaronm]

brostep is still huge bros, dont worry.


im with this guy though...i mean its legitimately gotten kids into dance music again, and that can't be anything bad. and tbh i'd rather see a bunch of bros and hoes moshin and havin a good time than a bunch of hipsters chinstroking and bringing the vibe down.

I agree with this completely. People are just having fun and enjoying the music. I don't see why people get bent out of shape over it. It's not like people are erasing pure dubstep tracks out of existence every time some one drops a skrillex tune or something.

[AntlionUK]

i think i prefer a topless dude to someone standing there on their phone talking to twitter

[hasezwei]

yeah, quarter/triplet aka 'push and pull' is totally new and hasnt been done before in every genre known to man (except hardstyle)

big up the chinstroke massive

[Sexual_Chocolate]

ugh. this again.

was the most cringeworthy article ive read for sometime..

[AxeD]

The fact that my moves are beyond awesome doesn't mean that crap is actually music.

[incnic]

i wrote a proper serous reply to this in brothread but deleted it
but yep terirble article, awful writing,

BRO MUGGS

pity as he is normally more level headed and intellgent...his interviews with Geiom are excellent reading...now this >
this is brostep 'journalism' at it lowest

[test_recordings]

Fucking load of shit

Everything that's been labelled as 'dubstep' is only tediously linked is in that article. A tiny bit about Coki, Hatcha etc.

Man's a joke

[Phigure]

i dont feel like reading 10 pages of brostep apologism

but i did it anyways, shame on me

his points are laughable:
it's dance music? okay? that doesnt necessarily give something merit. i could put my little pony samples over a 4x4 beat and call it dance music

same with his point about it being dj music

soundsystem music? ive avoided brostep nights like the plague, but i remember seeing mary anne hobbs play at coachella and i vividly remember when she played sweet shop in the middle of her set. all the weight that was in the air, the presence you feel from the sub, just instantly vanished. there was nothing... nothing. same thing when i saw joe nice headlining a night with 3 brostep acts before him

it's "insane"? celebrating the pissing contest of making the most "insane" obnoxious noise?

it's metal? korn + skrillex is a good thing? fuck off

it's grimey? brb gonna go mix scary monsters into pulse x... fuck no it isnt grime

it's a gateway to better things? maybe, but for every 1 sonika that decides to get into the "good stuff", theres thousands of kids who never get into nothing more than the shit that comes up when you search "dubstep" on youtube

[butter_man]

Another win for the forces of evil in the 'bro vs dub' war. Skrillex wamps, burial cries.

[Sonika]

I really like old school Rusko (which I think is what people pinpoint as the beginning of this brostep fad) and I think the direction he was taking was exciting, it's super fun and dance-y and lighthearted.

I'm not sure where it went wrong, but somewhere along that line someone started trying to just make the most maximalist screechy crap they could and it didn't have to be that way, but it was

Could really care less though. Only thing is I hesitate to say I like dubstep when I'm talking to people I don't really know. But it's not as bad as I thought, I'm actually astounded at how many people I meet my age who really know a thing or two about its roots. If we're talking about music and I say I like the deeper more "old school" roots of dubstep, I'm constantly surprised at the fact that the person/people I'm talking to will throw out a couple names that I wouldn't have expected them to know of.

[test_recordings]

If you swop 'dubstep' for 'brostep' the article's alright